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Winona Whitaker, Editor-in-Chief
Winona Whitaker
Editor-in-chief
MOBERLY — The accounting firm said last week that it had found no weaknesses in the city’s internal controls and issued a clear opinion on the city’s financial statements.
Amanda Schultz, CPA of Williams Keepers, reviewed the audit report with the Moberly City Council at their January 3 meeting.
“In the auditor’s opinion, the City’s financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects in accordance with the modified cash basis of accounting,” Schultz said after reading the audit’s summary report.
The company focused on areas where financial statements could be misrepresented. “That doesn’t mean we audit every balance or every transaction, but it does mean that we do enough work at the table to provide that clear or unaltered opinion,” Schultz says. said Mr.
The city’s total assets increased $2.9 million from $9.8 million in 2021 to $12.7 million. “It’s for important reasons [American Rescue Plan Act] Grants that the city received during the year but didn’t spend by the end of the year,” Schultz said.
The increase was around 30%.
Total debt increased by approximately $246,000, or 82%, from $299,152 in 2021 to $545,252 at the end of June 2022.
Total revenue increased by $2.2 million, or 11%, to $21.4 million, largely due to grants, Schultz said. Expenditure increased by $3.6 million, or 3%, due to airport projects funded by grants received during fiscal 2022.
Schultz said other sources of funding fell by just over $1 million, from $1.3 million to $285,509, due to the large amount of borrowings received in fiscal 2021.
The city’s own funds, primarily public utility funds, saw a slight increase in total assets from $7.3 million in 2021 to $7.7 million in 2022 due to an increase in cash and cash equivalents, according to the audit summary report.
“Total debt was stable,” Schultz said. “They only grew by about 14,000.”
Schultz said an increase in utility bills and contributions to the city’s health trust fund increased total revenue by $270,000.
Overall operating expenses decreased by more than $2 million, or about 18 percent, due to lower capital expenditures during the year, according to Schultz. “It depends on the projects in progress that year,” he says Schultz.
Total non-operating income decreased approximately 74% to $2.4 million due to additional borrowings received during the prior year.
“The city has had a single audit requested and conducted again this year,” said Schultz. “This is an additional audit because it happens every time there is a federal spending over 750,000.”
A single audit showed federal spending to be about $4.8 million in 2022, the audit report said.
The audit report on internal controls and compliance related to financial reporting had no material weaknesses and no instances of non-compliance. “It’s a clean report,” Schultz said.
“And reports on internal controls and compliance related to major federal programs had unaltered or clean opinions on compliance,” she said.
Schultz said: “We found our accounting records to be in good standing, but suggested some audit adjustments as a result of the procedure.”
Auditors identified several instances in which the city’s purchasing policies were not consistently followed throughout the year, primarily due to supply chain challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage the City to follow its purchasing policies as consistently as possible.”
According to Schultz, this is the first year auditors have made recommendations. Other recommendations were repeated from previous years.
The auditor reiterated its recommendation that the city reconsider the access granted to accounting software. Employees should only have access to those modules of the software that they logically need, the report said.
“I believe [that] We are already ready to implement the new system,” says Schultz. The city’s old software couldn’t restrict user access sufficiently, but “I think the new system that the city converted solved that.”
Auditors recommended that the city develop a formal information technology or security policy, including a password policy, and consider moving funds to clean up balances between funds.
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